Public Health in the Rockies 2026

Background/Purpose: Colorado’s newborn hearing screening program works with birthing facilities, audiologists, and other providers to collect data on infant hearing screening and follow-up. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) sends follow-up letters for infants who missed screening or did not pass and require rescreening or additional evaluation. Before this dashboard was completed, quarterly reporting required manual calculation of facility-level and statewide measures, making it time-intensive to present screening performance, follow-up outcomes, timeliness and benchmarking results to both birth facility staff and the Colorado Infant Hearing Advisory Committee (CIHAC). This project aimed to create a more user-friendly system for monitoring newborn hearing screening performance across Colorado.

Methods: As part of CDPHE’s Informatics work, we began the dashboard by writing a stored procedure, designing dashboard tabs, and improving how measures were organized and displayed. Although CIHAC initially requested detailed numeric tables, we recognized that tables alone would not provide a complete picture of statewide performance. The final reporting structure combined tables with visualizations to better communicate trends, outcomes, timeliness, and facility comparisons. This enables users to access the detailed numbers they needed while also observing clearer trends and outcomes. A map-based tool is also being developed to help families identify local hearing screening sites.

Results: The dashboard reduced reliance on manual quarterly preparation, enabled secure access to state and facility-level reports, and improved transparency around facility categorization and comparison to statewide coverages. Denver Health highlighted the dashboard’s accuracy and its value for real-time monitoring. It generated productive conversations with professionals from other states at the 2026 EHDI conference.

Implications: This work shows that user-centered dashboards can reduce reporting burden while making data more actionable. Key takeaways are that combining required tables with visualizations strengthens oversight, supports quality improvement, and improves communication with facilities, program leaders, and advisory stakeholders.